A lesson in serenity from Marina Abramović: here is her method for controlling emotions

Have you ever sat and looked into another person’s eyes for an hour? Have you ever come across a blindfolded space while wearing earplugs? Have you ever stared at a wall? It’s not fun, it’s the Marina Abramović Method, devised by the world-renowned performance artist known for her self-punishing and extreme artistic measures.All those exercises Marina Abramović has developed over the years to prepare for her legendary performances are now collected in thirty instruction cards contained in a box set(The Marina Abramovic Method. Instruction Cards to Reboot Your Life), which will be on sale for $19.99 from February 15, 2022 from British publisher Laurence King.

In addition to 30 cards with instructions for each exercise, the box set contains an accompanying booklet with the artist’s works and descriptive texts written with writer/editor Katya Tylevich. In the booklet, which elaborates on the instructions, Abramović makes a rather ambitious promise “I wish to pass on my knowledge to you. In years of traveling, learning, teaching and creating my art, I have found several ways to reach the fragile passage between one reality and another,” declares the celebrated Serbian performer.

To reach that transition, the exercises aim to help develop skills such as stamina, concentration, perception, self-control and willpower. Further inspiring her fans are the lush images of the artist demonstrating the techniques. Some of the means to this end sound familiar as they echo some of Abramović’s performances, such as the centerpiece of her successful retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in 2010. Exercises such as staring at a wall, slowly drinking a glass of water and moaning with a tree are illustrated in the cards. The box set represents another effort by the artist to spread her hard-won knowledge and teach her method for achieving higher consciousness and facing life’s challenges.

A lesson in serenity from Marina Abramović: here is her method for controlling emotions

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